Archive for March, 2010

The Glycemic Index (or GI) is a ranking of carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. In simple terms, the GI is a measure of the carbohydrate quality, in all foods.

The Glycemic Index was developed in approx 1980, as a new method of classifying carbohydrate foods. This proved once and for all that there is a range of different sugars, and are absorbed quickly into the blood. Understanding the GI is really simple

• Carbohydrate foods that break down quickly during digestion, releasing glucose quickly into the blood stream, have a high GI with a value of 70 or more (less of these)
• Carbohydrate foods that break down slowly, releasing glucose into the blood stream gradually, have a low GI with a value of 55 or less (more of these)
• Carbohydrate foods that break down at a moderate pace, releasing glucose into the blood stream neither slowly or quickly, have a medium GI with a value of 56 to 69 inclusive (some of these are ok)

The easiest way to use the Glycemic Index every day for your meals is to substitute lower GI foods for the higher GI foods that you may be currently eating.

There are more benefits to the lower GI carbohydrates than the higher ones. The lower GI carbohydrates give you a sustained energy over a longer period of time and will be more useful to your body. The high GI carbohydrates tend to move and out of the body at a much quicker rate, leaving you feeling hungry quicker and does not pack the same nutritional value as the slower release carbohydrates.

To find your favourite food and the GI go to: http://www.lowgihealth.com.au/glycemic-index-list-of-foods/

Scott Williams

Succeed Personal Training

Hey all,

In the previous weeks I have headed back down to the place of hell that I go to each Saturday to get absolutely spanked by some of the guys that live in the Crossfit world here in Canberra.

Fresh off ALL of them just qualifying for the Australian Crossfit Games I always new I was going to have my work cut out for me the last few weeks.

Last week saw us do what is known as 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 which is simply:

5 mins x 40kg Thrusters

4 mins x double under skipping

3 mins x 40kg Deadlifts

2 mins x 40kg Cleans

1 min x burpees

The goal here is to complete as many reps as possible in the time allocated for each exercise. Add up you total for a your score. My score was - 301 (one of the boys got 437, so I was well and truly belted here).

Saturday just gone saw only two of us up and about for the early morning session. Benny has been in hospital all week, so I new this was my chance to give him a run for his money. We set up a ‘Cindy’ variation, swapping air squats for 20kg Thrusters.

‘Cindy’ variation consists of:

5 x pull ups

10 x push ups

15 x 20 thrusters

x 20 minutes for total number of rounds

Total: 12 complete

Ben: 12 1/2 rounds

After about 14 minutes I thought he was slowing down I would storm ahead and finally beat him at something, but he managed to find a second wind and I just couldn’t catch him.. Great session though and my legs are still sore.

Here is a clip of the exercises:

It is as easy as, if it’s not available, it’s not a temptation.

Even “healthy” foods can be a problem for many people?  There are certain foods-and it’s an individual thing-that once you start eating them, it’s very hard to stop.

For me, it’s pasta. I’ll cook the whole wheat variety and sit down to a “healthy” meal, but unless I specifically portion out the amount I’m going to eat, I can easily end up having two or more serves.

You see, if I’m not careful, a healthy serve of “healthy” pasta can easily turn into a massive calorie overload sent straight to my waistline.

These foods-those “Salt and Vinegar Chips” -are what I refer to as “trigger foods” and if you’re going to consume them, you need to do so with a little bit of caution.

Here are just a couple of tips to help you with your trigger tips:

1. Only consume trigger foods as an “individual” meal, not with the family. This allows you to cook (or reheat) and individual portion, and not be tempted by a huge serving bowl in front of you.

2. If you are cooking one of your trigger foods as a family meal, measure out a single portion and place the rest in the fridge. Tell your dining friends “I’m not having seconds; hold me to it.”  A little accountability goes a long way.

3. Always measure out a specific portion and then store the rest.

Do you have a “healthy” trigger food? Let me know in the comments section below!

I’ll bet you anything it’s a carbohydrate of some sort

Scott

Local Tuggeranong Personal Trainer does the Crossfit session called ‘Isabel’

Well in my quest to get through all the foundation women of the Crossfit world, I found myself this week doing ‘Isabel’.

It consists of:

30 x 60kg snatch for time

Time: 5.35

I haven’t really had any experience or practice as yet in regards to the olympic lifts so this was a tough one for me, and I had to modify the weight to 50kg so as to stay safe.

Here is a demo of snatch technique:

I also did a 2nd attempt of a Crossfit ‘300′ workout that I had done in Nov 2009.

Here is a rundown of the session:

30kg Thrashers

pull ups

24′ Box jumps

split push ups

hanging knee raises

burpees

10kg O/H walking lunge

60kg Deadlifts

rower

Decline Push Ups

Time: 17.37 (previous time was 18.47)

Overall I was very happy with my 2nd attempt at the ‘300′ Crossfit workout. Obviously this program consists of 30 reps of each exercise (30 calories for the rower). This would not be a hard one to modify for outdoors with no equipment at all. If you are in that boat, just use your imagination with your sessions.

One thing I am finding now that I am coming back to previous Crossfit Workouts is the fact that I am busting myself to continually get better with each attempt. One of those sub-conscious mind battles to not let the fitness sessions beat and the fact that I am still quite a long way behind many of the Cross Fit times that are going around (hell, most of the girls that are doing Crossfit are flogging me with the times they are posting).

Scott Williams

Succeed Personal Training

As the third month of 2010 comes to a close, I thought now would be a good time to see where you are all at with your New Year’s resolutions? 

Are you still on the path or did your motivation sizzle out?

Most people wait around for motivation to strike them like a lightning bolt. Well, I’ve got news: motivation isn’t something that happens to you - it’s something that you create for yourself.

If you don’t feel motivated to achieve your goals, it is likely due to mental roadblocks that hold you hostage. Read the following 21 Mindset Tips and prepare your mind for success.

1. Success comes first in the mind, so visualize yourself accomplishing your goals.
2. Remember, you are the only person who can hold you back.
3. Forgive yourself and love yourself despite past failures.
4. Decide what is important in your life, and focus on that.
5. Conquer each negative thought the moment it enters your mind, when it is weakest.
6. Give up the idea that things won’t go right unless you worry about them.
7. If you bring the body of your dreams to the point of resolve, then you’ll soon be living in it.
8. Look towards your future, if you believe the best is yet to come then it will be.
9. You become what you think about most.
10. The margin between success and failure is very small and easily bridged by determination.
11. Start your day by accomplishing your hardest task first.
12. Set small attainable goals, rather than one monumental goal.
13. Convince yourself that exercise is fun, and it will be.
14. Know your big reason why.
15. Create a motivating play list of songs to use as the sound track to your workout sessions.
16. Every decision you make leads you either closer toward achieving your goal, or farther from it.
17. If you think you’re a fat person, then you’ll stay fat. If you think you’re fit, then you soon will be.
18. Once you’ve set your goal, your attitude either pushes you toward accomplishment or failure.
19. If you don’t know exactly where you want to go, you will likely end up someplace else.
20. You can have the body of your dreams, but first you must give up the belief that you can’t.
21. You can only have two things in life: excuses or results.

This was sent to me by someone else (have forgetten their name), but thought it was appropriate for all of wonderful clients to read through.

If you’re sick and tired of making excuses, then contact us today to get started on one of our fitness programs.

Leave me a comment in the section below and let me know how you have gone with your resolutions?

 Scott Williams

Succeed Personal Training

Most people don’t get what they want in life because they don’t know what they want. They may have a vague idea, but they can’t articulate clearly what true success means for them. In fact, when I ask people what they want, nine times out of ten they tell me what they don’t want. They say things like:

• “Well, I don’t want to be broke anymore.”
• “I don’t want all this credit card debt.”
• “I don’t wanna argue with my husband.”
• “I sure don’t wanna be fat.”

Those are good answers to the question, “What don’t you want?” But I’d asked them, “What do you want?”

There’s a big difference between knowing what you don’t want, and knowing what you do want. That distinction is going to be the key to your success.

If you’re thinking about what you don’t want, that’s what will show up in your life. What we think about, we bring about. So if you think consistently about what you don’t want, then that’s what will manifest in your world.

Another thing that people do in response to the question, “What do you want?” is to tell me not what they want, but what they think they can get. This can also limit your results for two reasons. First, it may set your standard very low and put in motion a pattern of negative thinking. Second, it may not be what you really want, so there’s no passion in the dream!

The human spirit will not invest itself in mediocrity, and you need that human spirit to achieve what you want. Your goal should be so exciting that you have butterflies in your stomach! That’s how you unlock the power of the mind and put it to work for you!

Scott Williams

Australian Fitness Expert

 As I am looking over a host of my clients nutritional in take over the last week, I am noticing an alarming trend of ‘dite soft drinks’ in their lists…

 Now I am not to sure what mis conception people are on here but, surely we all know any diet soft drink is not the healthiest thing  you can put in your body… the nasty chemicals, the fattening high fructose that your body can’t digest, and the problems caused by this carbonated cocktail is obviously something many of you are not aware of??

 Since you’re one of my valued clients and subscribers, I know that those reading this, actually do care about your health and the appearance of your body.

 After going over my clients food intake I though I better set the record straight…

 There is NOTHING healthy about drinking diet soft drinks. In fact, if you doa bit of research you will see there are studies that show dedicated diet soft drinkers got FATTER than people drinking normal soft drink…

 An excerpt from a study author at Texas Uni:

 ”What didn’t surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity,” Fowler tells WebMD. “What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher.” 

 ”There was a 41 percent increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day,” Fowler says.

Ok, as if we didn’t already know how bad regular soda was for us, and now they’re showing us studies that diet soda makes us even fatter than the already bad stuff!

There’s a lot of complicating factors as to why this occurs but a few stand out reasons are:

• 1. the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas create a negative hormonal response in the body that increases fat storing hormone production and increases cravings for more sweets and refined carbohydrates in the time period after consuming the diet drink.

• 2. people subconsciously think that because they are drinking a diet soft drink with less calories, that gives them more leeway to eat more of everything else, hence consuming more calories overall.

I’ve said this all along, but the bottom line is that if you’re serious about your health and body, soft drink of any kind (and artificial sweeteners in anything for that matter!) should be avoided at all times, except for very rare occasions when you can’t avoid them.

 Scott Williams

A post about the crossfit workout ‘Helen’

Well like I have said the last few weeks I am going to do all the foundation women of Crossfit.

This weekk I had a go at the Crossfit workout ‘Helen’.

I had previously attempted this session. It involves the following:

400m run

21 x 24kg D/B Swings (I actually used 26kg)

12 x pull ups

x three rounds for time

Time: 9.40 (previous best was 11.54 with jumping pull ups)

It has been five months since I last did the Crossfit workout ‘Helen’ and I think that 2.14 with proper pull ups is a huge improvement??

Still have quite a bit of work to do yet. The fatest recorded time I can find for the Crossfit workout ‘Helen” is 6.51, but this may be wrong?? This time is what is on the Crossfit site as the fastest time though??

I also did a conditioning session which was great fun:

run 400m

row 500m

x 5 rounds for time

Time: 20.01

If you are looking for a cardiovascular based Crossfit training session then this is a great one to do. Overall found it very taxing but was a great session.

Scott Williams

Succeed Personal Training

A post about all the results from the guinea pig trial on the Succeed Fat Loss System here in Canberra.

Well after a solid month of intense fitness training and controlling what we have been eating, the results are in for the Succeed Fat Loss System trial.

I will let the results speak for themselves:

Craig: starting weight - 85.8 finishing weight - 81.4kg a loss of 4.4kg

Julie: start 85kg, finish 79.4kg - a loss of 5.6kg

Kerrin: start 78.4, finish 75kg - a loss of 3.4kg

Brad: start 96.8, finish 91.2kg - a loss of 5.6kg and  20.2cm, an increase of 20cm in flexibility

A.J: start 103.4, finish 96.4kg - a loss of 7kg and 23cm, an increase of 11cm in flexibilty

Ken: start 86kg, finish 78.4 - a loss of 7.6kg - our BIGGEST LOSER well done Ken

Kim: start 77.6kg, finish 75.4 - a loss of 2.2kg

Myself: start 88.2, finish 84kg  a loss of 4.2kg + I have gone from 21% Body fat down to 15% which is fantastic

Obviously these are only the results of the ones I have tested, I still have another seven people to weigh and measure, but I know all have lost 4 - 7kg as well, so it has been an amazing result and a fantastic effort put in by everybody.

This complete program will be available online to purchase in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. It will also be a month by program if you wish to continue to receive a new training program each month for a minimal fee??

At this stage we have lost a total of: 62.6kg (including the people’s weight loss from last week that are not yet measured this week, so this number will be even higher..)

A big thank you to all those that have been my guinea pigs for the last month, I believe the program has taught you all that with a bit of manipulation with how you eat, what you eat and when you eat can really make a big difference to how you look no matter your age or fitness level. 80% of the body image battle is in what we eat and when we eat it.

 Combined with a well structured fitness training program, this really is the complete ‘fatloss system’.

Until next time,

Scott Williams

Creator, Succeed Fat Loss System 

Unfortunately due to the very wet conditions I only have footage of the evening activities that were conducted.

Here is a short clip on some of the more relaxed team building stuff that went on during the weekend:

Also hit up a Cross Fit Strength W.O.D & a Conditioning W.O.D as well this week at Club Lime Tuggeranong:

Strength - 10 min limit, 1 rep max Clean & Press & then flat bench

40, 50, 60, 62.5, 65, 67.5, 70kg (failed)

Personal Best: 67.5kg

Flat Bench

70,80, 82.5, 90, 100, 110(failed), 105kg

Personal Best: 105kg

I will be sure to come back to these in the coming months

Conditioning Phase

Row 750m

30 x D/U

15 x burpees

x 4 rounds for time

Time: 23.52

Scott Williams

Succeed Personal Trainer